Yet his retreat had been none too rapid.  The silence above was broken by the creak of an opening door, the sound of excited voices, and a sudden gleam of light, finding entrance through the open cellar-way.  West startled, crept back into a corner, every nerve alert at approaching peril.  He recognized Hobart’s voice, as the fellow plunged down the steps from the first floor out into the yard.

“To hell, of course he’s here!” he stormed.  “My God, man, he dived out head first; I saw him.  He’ll be dead as a door nail now.  Come on with that lantern, Turner.  Where in thunder is the ladder—­does any one know?”

“You think he lies on the roof?”

“Why not?  That’s where he must have struck, ain’t it, Shorty?  I don’t know though; it is so steep he’d most likely roll off.  Here, you, let me take the glim.  There’s nothing here in these boxes.  Ah, there’s the ladder; climb up, Shorty, and see if the guy is stuck anywhere on the roof.  Go on!  What are you afraid of; if he’s there, he’s a stiff all right, believe me.”

Turner’s voice, hoarse and rumbling, came back from above.

“There ain’t nuthin’ up here, Jim.  Damn me, if I don’t believe the cuss got clean away.  Gee, but he was sure a nervy guy all right.”

“Nervy?  Crazy, you mean.  But he never took that fall without busting something.  The bird is lying about here somewhere.  You make sure he ain’t up there, Shorty.”

“Well, he ain’t; I kin see every inch o’ this roof.  Perhaps he fell in between them barrels down there.”

The two evidently searched thoroughly, the rays of the lantern dancing wildly about, while Hobart savagely cursed his companion, and reiterated his belief that no man could ever take that plunge, and escape unhurt.

“It couldn’t be done, I tell you; maybe he could crawl, but that would be all.  Why he went down head first; I saw him go out the window, and that drop would daze a cat.  Say, Shorty, maybe the stiff dropped down into this cellar-way.  Let’s take a look.”

The light streamed in through the narrow opening, and some one scrambled cautiously down the rotted steps.  West, drawing himself securely back behind the protection of his barrel, saw the lantern thrust forward, and a face behind it peering in the shadows.  The fellow did not advance into the room, but Hobart did, pressing his way roughly past, and standing there full in the glow of light, staring about into the dim shadows.  He evidently saw nothing to arouse suspicion, for his voice was angry with disgust.

“Not a damn sign here, Shorty.  It looks like the fellow maybe did get away.  But it beats me how.  There ain’t no place now for us to look but the alley.”

“An’ if he ain’t there?”

“Then we’ll hop this dump mighty sudden, I’m telling you.  We’ll slip out and leave Mike to explain how he got his coco cracked.  With that guy loose, it won’t be healthy for me hanging around here.”